Diode-pumped vanadate lasers for variable-resolution video projectors

Robert J. Martinsen; Masayuki Karakawa; Stephen R. McDowell; Keith W. Kennedy; Andrew J. Radl

doi:10.1117/12.307600

4 May 1998 Diode-pumped vanadate lasers for variable-resolution video projectors

Robert J. Martinsen, Masayuki Karakawa, Stephen R. McDowell, Keith W. Kennedy, Andrew J. Radl

Proceedings Volume 3285, Fabrication, Testing, Reliability, and Applications of Semiconductor Lasers III; (1998) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.307600
Event: Optoelectronics and High-Power Lasers and Applications, 1998, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

Laser diodes are an important optical pump source for achieving high luminous efficiencies (i.e., total projected lumens per watt of input power) for laser video projectors. The commercial viability of these projectors will rely on extremely stable, diode-pumped near infrared lasers and high- quality nonlinear crystals to generate the required powers of red, green and blue light. Since pulsed lasers achieve the high peak powers that lead to efficient nonlinear interactions, there is a compelling argument for projectors to use pulsed rather than cw infrared lasers to create the RGB primaries. A method of spatial light modulation compatible with pulsed light sources is acousto-optic line writing, by which the modulation for an entire row of pixels (i.e., line of video) is captured by a single pulse of light. This modulation scheme, however, requires that the laser(s) produce short pulses at high rep rate to display the full resolution of the input video signal. Diode-pumped Nd:YVO₄ lasers are well suited for variable resolution projectors for their ability to deliver short pulses (less than 20 ns) over a wide range of rep rates (up to 90 kHz). We describe in this paper how pulsed Nd:YVO₄ lasers and AO modulators, enable variable resolution laser projectors that can display 2xNTSC, 4xNTSC, VGA, SVGA, XGA, and SXGA video formats.

Citation Download Citation

Robert J. Martinsen, Masayuki Karakawa, Stephen R. McDowell, Keith W. Kennedy, and Andrew J. Radl "Diode-pumped vanadate lasers for variable-resolution video projectors", Proc. SPIE 3285, Fabrication, Testing, Reliability, and Applications of Semiconductor Lasers III, (4 May 1998); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.307600

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KEYWORDS

Projection systems

Video

Semiconductor lasers

RGB color model

Neodymium lasers

Pulsed laser operation

Modulation

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